A Book and Blog about Life

Today’s Laundry List

I love this song by Train, Bulletproof Picasso. I thought maybe it might be soothing to listen to music while you read :-)

Train is a local band from San Francisco and one of my favorite bands. They always have interesting lyrical songs. I saw the lead singer of Train, Patrick Monahan, perform live in Las Vegas a handful of years ago and have been a fan ever since. He’s a very talented artist. Enjoy.

Those Nasty Ruskies Swaying the Election!

The Liberals whining is incessant. My ears are aching from their high pitched crybaby lullabies. Lately, all I hear is about how Trump stole the election, with the aid of Putin and those darn Ruskies! Cries of “We must punish Putin!”

I have two very important – and truthful – statements these people need to hear.

First, it’s a nice diversion strategy of the Democrats, aided by their loyal media puppets, to distract from their own sins. What the leaked/hacked emails revealed was horrifying!! Every American should be pissed as hell towards the elite Democratic establishment, far more so than toward the Russians or whoever is accountable for this hack. It likely was the Russians, I believe.

Have you seen the content of these leaked emails?? My God!! It shows, emphatically, without any blanket of doubt, the utter contempt Democrats have for the American people; the collusion between liberal media, the DNC (Democratic Party Committee), and Hillary establishment Democrats; it epitomizes crony capitalism, elitism, corruption, and more. They were all colluding to destroy Sanders, and ensure Hillary’s primary victory. The DNC and media are supposed to be neutral!

If the Republicans do this, they also should be strung up on neckties, metaphorically speaking.

It’s illegal behavior at worst, unethical at minimum, and stands against everything a democratic system is supposed to represent!

But instead of focusing on the message, the evil exposed within the emails themselves, the Democrats and the media are trying to wash this over by focusing on targeting the perpetrators of the hack – Russia – and demonizing Wikileaks, the conduit for the hacked information.

I don’t like Russia or any foreign body interfering with our democratic process (and there must be consequences).

But I’m even more outraged that the biggest saboteurs of democracy in America are liberals and Democratic Party itself, aided and abetted by the ever-so-faithful Left sympathetic media.

This isn’t my opinion. It’s proven fact, from their own mouths, and emails.

Americans should be pissed at the liberal media and the Hillary Democrats themselves, i.e. the establishment Democratic party. It IS utterly corrupt and morally bankrupt. If you’re a Democrat, you should be FAR MORE PISSED THAN ME.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the RNC (Republican National Committee) also did the same against Trump. But until we see evidence of such bad behavior, we can’t presume guilt. This is America, where everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

Second, America whining about Russia interfering with our election, because we didn’t like the outcome, is the worst form of hypocrisy.

The truth is ugly sometimes.

America has rigged more foreign elections of sovereign nations than any other country on the planet! This is absolute fact. This was modus operandi for our CIA and State Department for decades. It still goes on today. We have, shamefully, toppled more governments and regimes than all other countries combined. We have assassinated or attempted to assassinate numerous foreign leaders (this activity has since stopped in recent decades, thank god). We fund opposition parties and movements that we agree with. We spread propaganda to sway elections…we do far more and far worse things than Russian ever did in the 2016 election!

IN FACT, ALL RUSSIA AND WIKILEAKS DID WAS UNVEIL THE TRUTH – SOMETHING THE “INDEPENDENT” AND “OBJECTIVE” MEDIA IS SUPPOSED TO BE DOING IF THEY ACTUALLY DID THEIR JOBS. IF THE ACCUSATION IS THAT THE TRUTH SWAYED THE ELECTION, THEN IS THAT A BAD THING? WE’RE FOCUSED ON THE WRONG SIN HERE. SPREADING LIES WOULD BE ONE THING, BUT ALL OF THESE EMAILS WERE WORDS FROM THE DEMOCRATIC AND LIBERAL MAINSTREAM MEDIA ESTABLISHMENT THEMSELVES!

And WE have the audacity to demand repercussions for Russia? The pungent hypocrisy is spewing to the heavens. Give me a break.

WE CANNOT CONDONE BAD BEHAVIOR AS LONG AS WE LIKE THE OUTCOME, YET CONDEMN IT WHEN WE DON’T.

This has been an integral part of American foreign policy since WWII. Not coincidentally, it is one of the major reasons why so many, in places like the Middle East, hate America today. How would we feel if Russia did this to us every election, and far worse?

The seeds of terrorism and hatred for America has been long in the making.

AMERICANS NEED TO WAKE UP AND STOP PRETENDING WE’RE SOME DEMOCRACY OF SAINTS, DOING ONLY GOOD IN THE WORLD. WE ARE SO DAMN BRAINWASHED. NOT MUCH DIFFERENT THAN THE RUSSIANS, OR EVEN, I HESITATE TO SAY IT, THE RADICAL TERRORISTS.

WE HAVE KILLED FAR MORE INNOCENTS THAN ALL THE TERRORISTS COMBINED, EVEN BEFORE 9-11. WE KILL OUR “ENEMY” INDISCRIMINATELY, ACTING AS LONE JUDGE AND JURY BUT WITHOUT A HEARING – INCLUDING AGAINST AMERICAN CITIZENS ABROAD. OUR DRONES ROAM IN EVERY HOSTILE REGION WITH IMPUNITY, ANSWERING ONLY TO CLOSET AUTHORITIES WITHOUT ACCOUNTABILITY. THESE ARE FACT.

If the government suddenly decided to label me a terrorist, either rightly or by accident, I could be killed without trial by our over-reaching global security apparatus; stuffed by a silent drone, operated by a man who never has to taste or smell death, from his comfortable leather chair thousands of miles away.

When war becomes as detached as a video game, it desensitizes us to the true brutality of our actions. It makes it too convenient to kill and destroy with little collateral damage to our conscience. And nothing is more dangerous than that.

Perhaps we should be asking for God’s forgiveness, instead of touting our righteousness.

The cover of democracy does not give us the right to impose our will on others, who may be too weak to fight back or simply disagree.

I love my country as much as anyone, but we are not righteous, nor are we often justified in our blanket aggression, hiding behind the false cover of national security.

Politics of Fear and Hypocrisy

I’ve heard a lot of prognostications about what a Trump presidency will be like, everything from Gestapo like Authoritarianism to the Apocalypse. It makes me laugh with cynicism at the brainwashed stupidity of so many. It’s too bad people get so worked up, frenetic, and outright laughably psychotic about their predictions of what Trump will cause (bad things of course). Especially considering that every one of these “fortune tellers” haven’t been able to predict anything correctly in the past. Bad track record = shut the hell up.

However, there are many things that do concern me about his pending administration. My first being that Trump is a bit too friendly to Wall Street, counter to some of his election rhetoric. Not entirely surprising. I’m concerned about the possibility he may roll back some of the post Financial Crisis regulations on Wall Street. But realistically, Clinton would likely have done the same, given her extreme coziness with Wall Street – except more stealthily. Even still, it bothers me greatly. Greed must have boundaries and accountable rules, as we have painfully learned.

Here’s a short article from someone who actually has some predictive history:

And he is probably right. This has been one of my concerns as well, listening to Trump’s changed post-election rhetoric.

(Of course, I also called the 2008 Financial Crisis (as well as the 2000 Tech bubble crash), but I get no kudos. Hell I called the exact top by shorting oil futures at the peak, near $140/barrel, and rode it down to about $35. Nice gains.)

I’m also pretty sure a fairly substantial tax reform and tax cut package will pass next year. Tax restructuring is good for everyone and the economy. However, substantial tax cuts that increase our deficits or reduce the tax liabilities of the wealthy should be opposed to the death. That’s dangerous. Trump has vowed a deficit neutral reform/cuts, but I’ve heard every politician say the same say thing. It never seems to happen. Washington math is a bit fuzzier than what our calculators spit out. But, let’s wait and see. Reduction and simplification of corporate tax structure is a good thing, however. Having an extensive business background, I can assure you there is direct correlation between corporate tax rates and employment, as well as offshoring. We have the highest corporate tax rates anywhere in the developed world. It hurts our global competitiveness, especially in manufacturing.

The Fear of Trump

The fear of the minority left-wing extremists is mind-boggling, and, frankly, utterly hypocritical. I saw this article from the LA Times below and I thought to myself, did they have convenient amnesia?

President Obama exercised more extreme and legally controversial executive orders than any president in modern history – perhaps ever! Most of his actions were deemed downright unconstitutional and stopped by the courts. In fact, Obama pretty much stated (paraphrasing), that if the Republicans won’t do what he wants them to do, then he will unilaterally take action. This is precisely what he said and did! So for the Left to suddenly have this fear about Trump is hypocritical at least, outrageously irresponsible, and simply another example of journalistic bias.